Faythe Levinesaw player:Wooden Robot artist:Flying Fish Design

Making music in Milwaukee:

Milwaukee is the only city I have lived where I have played music, although I have been involved in the music scene in other cities. Comparably, I think it holds up well, as far a support and accessibility to venues.

I came to Milwaukee to visit a friend.  There was a giant party in an empty building downtown (on Valentine's day) with art installations and the Thousandaires were playing. It was really inspiring, so I packed up my bags and moved.

I think there are enough people here making music, that if you check around, you should be able to find someone to work with.

I have felt very, very large amounts of support from listeners and musicians. Wooden Robot has been very lucky as far as our support goes. Our music seems to breach across normal boundaries, and we appeal to many types of people, and, because of this, our support is also a wide variety of folks and venues - and of course, WMSE.

Creating CD and merch art:

It entirely depends on the vision of the band, or, if it's up to me, then what is inspiring me at the time - how the music feels and how much time I am willing to put into it. For example, the Call Me Lightning album art took Nathan Lilley and myself over 50 hours to complete, no computers until the end when we scanned it in.

I've only done illustrations working with a few labels and, so far, they give the bands the final call. So, no problems yet.

I got a call from the merchandise manager of the Yeah Yeah Yeah's who is a friend of mine wanting some illustration work done. There was no concept and it was totally up to me to work something out. I personally find this more difficult than being approached with a theme or idea. One can compare this with when I worked with local band Temper Temper on their album art doing art direction. We sat down, had a meeting with the 5 members, brain stormed, came up with a story board, and basically made it happen. Working with large groups of people can always make things a bit more difficult, so I guess I would rather just have the final call myself.

Being in a band with six other members:

Wooden Robot is pretty relaxed. We all sorta fall into our own roles, I do a lot of the art and layout but so does Matt, and also David Stein does most of our illustrating. Of course we don't always agree, but we have learned to work with each other well.  There hasn't ever been any big problems.

If conflicts arise, have some beers, let it rest and usually it solves itself. We have taken a few needed breaks as well. We are a very functional, dysfunctional family.

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